Announcement

Brasilia & Internacional Off to Perfect Starts in MRL!

Both Team Chicago Academy-Brasilia and Team Chicago Academy-Internacional were off to perfect starts in the U15 MRL Premier Division and U17 MRL First Division this past weekend.

Brasilia’s opening game in Muscatine, IA was against Omaha FC Elite – three time State Champions from Nebraska – and Brasilia came away with a 4-3 victory. Early on in the match MaKenna Schoolman was played in 1v1 with the GK and just nearly scored. However, instead Brasilia fell behind midway through the first half against the run of play.

The balance of the goals were all scored in the second half. The first came as Maggie Roe played a nice ball to put Safia Hannin in behind the defense, and she calmly beat the keeper to tie it up. Both goals scored in the second half by Omaha FC were off of restarts. Brasilia second goal came off of a combination that started with Jade Eriksen-Russo who played the ball into Abby Severson who found Jasmine Ruiz 30 yards away from goal. Jasmine’s goal was the result of great field awareness and seeing the keeper off her line and she placed it perfectly.

The third goal came from a nice ball served over the top from Jasmine that found Maggie Roe in on goal who fought off pressure to place the ball in the corner. The game winner goal came off a great ball played over the top by Lupe Anguiano that found Abby Severson. Abby found Maggie Roe in the box and she made a nice turn to place the ball past the keeper.

Sunday morning’s game was against Kansas Rush. This game was a defensive battle and ended with a 1-0 victory for Team Chicago. The only goal came from a heads-up play from Safia Hannin who went after a ball that looked as if it were going out, and she got a hold of it and served a great ball across the six. Maggie Roe ran onto the ball and smashed it home for the game winner.

The biggest play came in the second half when the referee awarded Rush a penalty kick. The Kansas Rush player stepped up and hit a well-placed shot that looked like it was going in only to be denied by a fantastic save by Madison Lockard. The back four were resilient and should be recognized for their tireless work throughout the game. Congrats to Nicole Mondi, Emmerson Fuller, Jade Eriksen-Russo and Rachel Erdman.

Brasilia will now travel to Overland Park, Kansas for the next round of MRL Premier Division games.

Internacional traveled to East Lansing, MI to take on TNT and MI Gators. Both games ended with 3-1 wins for Internacional.

On Saturday night, Sam O’Brien opened the scoring from a great Miranda Lambert run and cross on-top of the six-yard box. Against the run of play TNT struck back to make it 1-1 before halftime.

However, Internacional responded really well in the 2nd half and Sam O’Brien got the eventual game-winner from a great win and pass in the midfield by Cailin LaRoque 10 minutes into the half. The insurance goal came with 5 minutes left when Jordan Wilde won a ball in the air and found the side-netting of the far post with a perfect finish.

On Sunday morning Internacional created several 100% chances in the opening 10 minutes, but the only goal came from Sam O’Brien’s individual effort beating a defender 1v1 and walking it in. The rest of the half was more of the same – total Internacional dominance in terms of chances but they all went begging.

10 minutes into the 2nd half Miranda Lambert got the game-winner when she took a great Alena Sidwell pass, and calmly walked the ball in across the chasing defenders and slotted it home at the far post. MI Gators struck back off a free-kick with 20 minutes left, but Alena Sidwell finished them off with 3 minutes left in the game with another perfect far post finish from the top of the six-yard box off Sam O’Brien’s cross.

Next up for Internacional is a must-win State Cup game at FCX in South Barrington at 11:30am this Saturday.